1. Technical Field
Embodiments of the present disclosure relate to a developing device in which a developer bearer is rotatable in forward and reverse directions and an image forming apparatus including the developing device.
2. Description of the Related Art
In an electrophotographic image forming apparatus, a surface of a photoconductor as a latent image bearer is uniformly charged by a charging device, an exposing device exposes the charging surface of the photoconductor based on an original image so as to form a latent image, and a developing device causes toner as developer to adhere to the latent image so as to form a toner image. The developing device includes a developing roller which serves as a developer bearer, a regulation member that is disposed in a non-contact state while contacting a surface of the developing roller or forming a minute gap therebetween, and the like. The developer borne on the developing roller is regulated in a uniform thickness by the regulation member, is transported to a position opposing the photoconductor, and is supplied onto the photoconductor. Then, the toner image formed on the photoconductor is transferred to a recording medium such as paper by a transfer device, and is output while being fixed to the recording medium by a fixing device. Further, a small amount of toner which remains on the photoconductor after the toner image is transferred is removed by a cleaner.
As the cleaner that removes a residual toner on the photoconductor, a method is widely adopted which uses a cleaning member having a shape of blade and scrapes off the residual toner by the cleaning member. However, in this method, a cleaning failure may be caused by a foreign material such as a paper powder stuck between the cleaning member and the photoconductor. In order to prevent this cleaning failure, a method is known which rotates a photoconductor in a direction opposite to a rotation direction in an image forming operation and removes a foreign material stuck between a cleaning member and the photoconductor.